And yet another ball turner

[iron man]

I got tired of not having a ball turner so I made one out of steel this weekend for my Atlas Lathe. It is a simple design and works good.

 

[iron man]

Since the Atlas has a v type post for the compound I thought I would take advantage of it.

 

[iron man]

I indexed three holes and installed ball bearings with a setscrew adjustment behind it they roll around the post very nice.

 

[iron man]

And of course the first ball you turn is the one for the handle.. Ray

 

[righto88]

Very nice work! It sure turned a nice ball!

 

[dave2176]

I gotta make one of these. They are so cool.
Dave

 

[Kroll]

Nice job Ironman,looks like a very nice project.I am in need of a ball turner as well,nothing fancy just need it to work.I'm a beginner and would like to know alittle more details.Being a beginner I do not know what the cutting tool is called or anything bout it,could you explain alittle bout it?Did you make the part that the insert is mounted on and did you weld it to the part that slides for adjusting the size of the ball?Is your material just mild steel or something special?I really like the ball bearings,did you use just a setscrew to push the bearing into place?Guess its a 3/8 ball bearing, I also have a 12" Sears/Atlas lathe which I really just started using it and want to add your ball turner.I have some knobs to make from maybe 5/8 dia on up to maybe 2-3" dia.Thanks for posting your project,it has fired me up to get busy----kroll

 

[iron man]

Nice job Ironman,looks like a very nice project.I am in need of a ball turner as well,nothing fancy just need it to work.I'm a beginner and would like to know alittle more details.Being a beginner I do not know what the cutting tool is called or anything bout it,could you explain alittle bout it?Did you make the part that the insert is mounted on and did you weld it to the part that slides for adjusting the size of the ball?Is your material just mild steel or something special?I really like the ball bearings,did you use just a setscrew to push the bearing into place?Guess its a 3/8 ball bearing, I also have a 12" Sears/Atlas lathe which I really just started using it and want to add your ball turner.I have some knobs to make from maybe 5/8 dia on up to maybe 2-3" dia.Thanks for posting your project,it has fired me up to get busy----kroll

# Thanks it is fairly simple project all material is cold rolled. The part that holdes the carbide insert is a piece of cold roll cut into a L shape and then milled and shaped to the configuration that you see I used a carbide insert I had laying around simply because it had a hole in it and it is very simple to secure and change out. The ball bearings are 5/16 the setcrews that apply the adjustment are 3/8. Ray

 

[Kroll]

One more question ironman,what size inserts are you using.I don't know anything about inserts sizes,or shapes so I don't really know how to select a insert---kroll

 

[Pmedic828]

Hi. I am in the process of making a ball turner - i just managed to turn a square piece of 1-1/4 X 4 X 4 into the "body". What size is the circular portion of the turner = mine will be about 3.750 when I am done and will post pics. I will attempt to hold the "body" to a piece of 1/2 inch plate with 4 holes mounted to the saddle using a 3/8 X 1 inch FH cap screw - I also will attempt to mount a bearing so it can turn. Thanks for the info.